2009 Patriots players who met/exceeded/dissapointed your expectations

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Lets go with 3 players from EACH of the following catagories from the 2009 season who ...

Met Your Positive Expectations?
Exceeded Your Positive Expectations?
Dissapointed you in your Expectations?


Those who Met my expectations?

Tom Brady - Back from delicate knee surgery and took them to the playoffs,thats all we could ask of him after 1 year removed from football.

Randy Moss - I didn't expect him to have a big year and I thought he probably would accomplish similar to what he did in 2008 with Cassel,it was pretty close to what I thought he would do,not too much of a change.

Vince Wilfork - I thought he took command of a Seymour-Less defensive line and played the run well all year in a contract year,I expected him to have a decent season and he did.



Those who Exceeded my expectations?

Sebastian Vollmer - This was my WTF pick in last years draft as I had never heard of the guy,But the moment Light went down with injury and he filled in you could see this guy has pro NFL talent to man the OL for a long time,He can play both LT and RT and has done a superb job of keeping pressure off of Brady,If only our other guys played with his intensity Brady would have much more time to find open guys.

Julian Edelman - Just when we think we have the best slot receiver possibly in NFL history in Wes,Here comes this so-so 7th round QB from Kent State who has never played the position yet his transition to a #3 WR seemed effortless and almost like he had done it for years,If Edelman had not broken his arm,He could have had a very small shot at ROTY,About as close to a Wes Welker as you will find right now,although he has a bit of ways to go to be in WWs class.

Tully Banta-Cain - After seeing his play this year and by far our best pass rusher,one has to wonder why Belichick let him go to SF a few years ago,I think Cain will be retained in an extention and should continue to provide some pass rush that is one of the biggest weaknesses this team has.



Those who Dissapointed my expectations?

Adalius Thomas - I thought this was the season that this high paid veteran was going to take the defense over and become a leader,That is about as far from what happened as he turned out to be disrespective of his coach and a cancer in the locker room...By FAR and away the biggest dissapointment in 09

Derrick Burgess - While he did have some very light flashes of 2005,Its obvious to me that this veteran has lost his talents,While signed after the failed Jason Taylor fiasco he was never the pass rushing threat he was hired to be and invisible for much of the season,Maybe he is simply not a good fit on this defense but I do know I was dissapointed in him.

Joey Galloway - This was the receiver we thought might have a little gas left in that old tank and his speed was still exceptional but he never caught on with Brady and he was out of sync in this offense from the beginning despite much time practicing with Brady - Joey's failure as a #3 WR was a MAJOR reason why this offense struggled against good teams when we no longer had a serious veteran threat outside of Welker and Moss.

 

[Bill B.]

Re: 2009 Patriot Players who met/exceeded/dissapointed your expectations

While I agree whole-heartedly with your choices, I will add some others, just to be different:

Met expectations:

Ty Warren- This guy has just been solid for the Patriots since they drafted him. A good complement to Wilfork.

Mike Wright- After Seymour was traded, we needed another d-lineman to step up and Wright did a good job.

Jerod Mayo- I expected him to lead the team in tackles and he did, despite missing three games with an injury. Expectations were high for him, and I think he came back too quick from his injury, but still a solid season.

Exceeded expectation:

Wes Welker- After two seasons with over 110 catches, I thought that defenses would somehow figure out how to slow him down. Led the NFL in receptions while missing almost three games. Should have gernered some consideration for MVP.

Gary Guyton- After Mayo went down, it fell on Guyton to anchor the defense in the middle and I thought he did a commendable job. To go undrafted and then be a starting ILB in your second year, I am sure, beat everyone's expectations.

Kevin Faulk- How long will he be effective? When will age slow him down? Made a ton of big plays for the Patriots this year. Most clutch performer on the team.

Disappointed expectation:

Dan Koppen- I like Koppen, but to be honest, it seemed like opposing DLs were getting a big push up the middle and put a lot of pressure on Brady.

Ben Watson- Too many drops. Seems to catch the hard ones but can't handle the easy ones. Thought he would have had a better year.

Jarvis Green- After Seymour left, I thought he would step up more and make more contributions, but I just didn't see it.

 

[ALP]

Re: 2009 Patriot Players who met/exceeded/dissapointed your expectations

ill just do the dissapointed, and ill do not obvious ones:

Mayo, the guy got hurt, so u cant blame him that much, but our LB's struggled b/c of his play being nothing like it was his rookie year, hopefully hell rebound

meriweather: this inconsistency is killing me, and his repeated mistakes with the double move even more so.....he can play at a pro bowl level one week, and look like a college freshman the next

kaczur: inconstistent all year, let a rookie take over his spot, we just gave him an extension, but his struggles are NOT good

Green: we might as well not have given him that roster bonus

 

[racicotm]

Re: 2009 Patriot Players who met/exceeded/dissapointed your expectations

Hmm...

Met

Leigh Bodden
Even though the secondary wasn't that good this year I thought bodden played well for most of the season and even great at times.

Joey Galloway
I thought it was a dumb idea to begin with and figured he wasn't going to be useful unfortunately i was right.

Exceeded

Sebas and Edelman
for obvious reasons two rookies ended up being two of the best players on the team this year.

Maroney
I still don't like maroney but even for him to have 4 games of consistency It was something that I didn't expect at all.

Dissapointed

Chung
Didn't think we were getting a superstar but I expected something anything never really happened maybe next year but dissapointed my expectations.

Fred Taylor
Well this guy came in got injured and did virtually nothing for us. Pats have to stop buying guys that are past their prime.

Wilhite and Wheatley
I figured these two would at least be serviceable this year they just aren't growing and would struggle to stay on a practice squad at this level of play.

Pats Offense less (welker and moss)
Coming into the year we didn't know what to expect from our defense but i was pretty confident that the Offense was still going to be good to above average not the case at all. This offense just had so many problems this year, couldn't protect brady, brady wasn't accurate, brady enjoyed throwing picks (ok that was a cheapshot), no TRUE RB again, didn't gameplan well enough to include Moss early, only played one half of every game, sighh...the list goes on.

 

[kmax]

Re: 2009 Patriot Players who met/exceeded/dissapointed your expectations

Met: Welker

Exceeded: Sea Bass, Edelman, Ingram

Disappointed: Maroney, Wilhite, Wheatley, Chung, Brace, Butler, Woods, Mayo, TE's

 

[mayoclinic]

Exceeded: SeaBass, Julian Edelman, Myron Pryor, Leigh Bodden, Brandon McGowan, Tully Banta-Cain

Disappointed: Brady (I wasn't surprised he started rusty, but I think he's developed some bad habits), Adalius Thomas, Derrick Burgess, Joey Galloway, Ron Brace, Fred Taylor

 

[SanAngeloState]

Disappointed:

Brady - my hopes were too high, thought he'd move better in the pocket and not stare down Moss.

Moss - hard time catching in traffic on long throws, couldn't shake off Revis

Belichick - offesnes and defense lacked imagination, how many Maroney off tackles and Faulk draws do we have to see? Does someone actually get a salary for calling those?

Koppen- manhandled, borderline useless at times

Mayo - just hoping the coaching staff didn't ruin his knee by rushing him back. He's be better in a 4-3

Burgess - crazy old uncle Al isn't so crazy after all to get a 3rd and 5th on this one year rental of a JAG player he probably would have cut

Thomas - one of the worst signings of all time, just a nightmare for BB. Bad attitude, horrible play. Can't rush a passer to save his life. BB will probably never sign a top $ FA like him again. Learned his lesson.

Exceeded

Myron Pryor - need to get this guy into a 1 gap soon, looked explosive

seabass - far better than light, blows him away

Fred taylor - started out really strong

Edelmen - looked good, high effort guy, maybe he can be a #2 WR.

Cain - at least he's trying, impressive spin move

McGowan - hard hitter, good pickup

Welker - superman in a 5'8" body. Godspeed Mr. Welker.

 

[ayjackson]

Exceeded: Vollmer, Connolly, Bodden, McGowan, Banta-Cain

Dissappointed: Koppen, Galloway, Aiken, Taylor, Thomas, Burgess, Green, Brace

Met: Everybody else

 

[Buchanty]

Exceeded - Welker, Vollmer, Bodden, Arrington, Wilfork (not letting contract negotiations detract from his play).


Disappointed
- Coaching
Offensive Play Calling, Pass Rush, Special Teams.
- Front Line except Vollmer and Mankins
- Hanson
- Brace (I know he's a rookie but he needed to step up and didnt, and now feel he's going to be a bust)
- 3rd receiver (everyone of them apart from Edelman)
- Maroney (if he could have avoided coughing up the ball just 3 or 4 of the 5 times he might have made the Exceeded list)
- Fair weather fans especially many of the posters from the last 10 days - while I respect their opinions it made this site less attractive in the aftermath of the loss. I suspect we have forgotten how to digest defeat.

Everyone else more or less met expectations, which is still pretty good since I still think the RK/BB/TB trio will always produce competitive teams.

 

[PowerAlley.com]

Met Expectations: Welker, Wilfork, Ghost
Exceeded: Tully B, Myron Pryor
Didnt cut it: Mayo, Jarvis Green, Ben Watson

 

[wilfork is beastin']

Exceeded:
Bodden - Came off of a horrible year while being the starter on one of the worst defenses of all time and ended up having a good season and making plenty of big plays for us.

Seabass - Everyone ripped this pick and said he was a reach and that he wouldn't contribute. Turns out he's performed just as well if not better than some of the top tackles taken in the past draft.

TBC - Who saw this guy getting 10 sacks this year?

Welker - what else needs to be said?

Pryor - 6th round pick ends up stepping in for Big Vince and holding his own

Edelman - another late round steal.

Neal - Our best o-lineman by far

Meriweather - Former first round bust becomes gets a little love with the pro bowl nomination.

McGowan - great FA pickup

Disappointed:

Adalius Thomas - see my Welker comment

Wilhite - He looked promising at the end of 08, and while some of the catches made against him weren't necessarily always his fault, he didn't make any improvements this year.

Koppen - Got pushed around way too much. Looked like a liability at times.

Green - I always said he could start on most teams. I'm not so sure anymore

Brace - Not a very encouraging rookie year.

Chung - Wanted to see more out of him. Hard hitter as advertised, made a nice play in the first phins game, but couldn't get on the field enough

Met:

Brady - Played through injury and lead the team back to the playoffs. I'm thrilled he's back.

Moss - Apparently "slouching" means you put up top 10 numbers for your position

Wilfork - see my username

Warren - still a great, reliable DE. Just not the pass rusher I expected him to be, and I hope these injuries don't keep piling up.

Mayo - I know some have him as a disappointment this year, and while his play wasn't like last year he came back from injury (probably too early), lead the team in tackles, and sacked the living daylights out of Peyton. An offseason of rehab and another summer living in Gillette and he'll be a force in 2010. For a guy who tore his MCL in the first game of the season he more than met what I expected.

 

[wilfork is beastin']

I forgot to add Butler. He pretty much met my expectations. I didn't expect him to start that much this year but he made some plays when he was in.

 

[R_T26]

Wheatley- looked really nice against the colts till he got hurt.
Then never got on the field and couldnt beat out duane starks jr aka wilhite.

 

[jbb9s]

Wheatley- looked really nice against the colts till he got hurt.
Then never got on the field and couldnt beat out duane starks jr aka wilhite.

duane starks jr aka wilhite!!! Hilarious.

Yea - Wilhite was the big draft pick from a couple of years ago and he is in danger of not making the team next year. If he does, it will be because BB couldn't resign the vets at cheap $.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

Let's see if I can stir this up a bit.

Expectations Met:
Welker: had another awesome season but I fear this injury is going to be worse than people think. These injuries are extremely difficult to overcome especially when your entire game relies on cutting and not speed. Wouldn't be surprised if they shut him down at least half the season.

Maroney: It's unfortunate he fumbled at the worst times because he was finally getting into a rhythm. If the Pats hadn't played musical chairs at RB, Maroney would've topped 1,000 yards and 10 TD's easy. Not that I'm comparing him to Adrian Peterson, but even the best fumble. They need to find a role for him and stick with it.

Vince Wilfork: A lot of people on this board love this guy, but it's really hard to tell how good he is when the Pats defense continues to get shredded on the ground. Ever since he stepped in at NT, the run defense has declined. But as I have said many times on this board, their LB's have been below average for quite awhile so it's unfair to put all the blame on Wilfork.

Leigh Bodden: I was worried he would be the next Duane Starks but played pretty solid for most of the season. He was a good pick up.

Kevin Faulk: He always gives you a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Not flashy, but a great pass protector and is great taking draws in the shotgun.

Brandon Merriweather: He plays well one week, and then disappears the next. He had a decent season as he should for a 1st round pick. However, he needs to work on his consistency.

Expectations Exceeded:

Tully Banta-Cain: Back in the off season, I couldn't care less when the Pats re-signed him and believed he would be cut sometime in training camp. However, the Pats did a great job in simplifying his role and allowing him to concentrate on what he does best - rush the passer. He's obviously not a all around LB, but he had a great season.

Sebasitian Vollmer: He goes from being arguably the biggest reach of the Pats draft, to possibly their best player from the Pats draft. I'll be shocked if he doesn't take Light's job in training camp.

Myron Pryor: Flat out embarrassed Ron Brace. Could be their starting DE next season.

Julian Edelman: Nice gem, reminds me of Ricky Proehl. Will annoy defenses for years to come.

Disappointments:

BB: This was just a bad year for him. Trading Richard Seymour at the beginning of the season was just plain stupid. However, I stood by the 4th and 2 because I wouldn't want to rely on that defense either. Also, I credit BB for not playing scared in those situations.

Tom Brady: I know he's just coming back from injury but he became a 4th quarter loser in 2009. He should bounce back next season and hopefully the organization will get serious like they did in 2007 and put talent around him.

Shawn Crable: What a loser. He will not make the team in 2010.

Wilhite/Wheatley: These guys flat out suck. I was screaming Terrell Thomas with the Pats second round pick but hopefully they learned their lesson in stop drafting fast midget CB's.

Ron Brace: Pointless pick and is proving just that after being inactive most of the season.

Adalius Thomas: He hasn't been used right since he arrived in 2007. He best games were late in 2007 and early 2008 when he was used as a pass rusher and actually earning his money. I don't think he's lost his ability, I think he's flat out dogging it because he hates his role. Wouldn't surprise me to see him go to the Jets and register 10 sacks with them in 2010 (assuming he's cut).

Burgess: Didn't mind the trade until I found out the Pats actually traded a 3rd and a 5th. Because of his injuries and past production, he wasn't worth anything more than a 4th rounder. I didn't expect him to be a pro bowler but a heck of a lot more than what he did this season. I expect the Pats to let him walk.

Fred Taylor: I predicted Taylor would have a pro bowl season with the Pats. Unfortunately, he got injured and by the time he came back, the season was over. I expect the Pats to cut him.

Sammy Morris: He's injured every season but will give you some nice production from time to time. However, it's time to let him go.

Jarvis Green: Did he even play this season?

The 2009 off season: From the Peppers rumors to the anti-climatic trade of Matt Cassel. The entire 2009 off season was a huge disappointment. I said right before the 2009 draft that this was BB's most important draft to date due to the quality and quantity of the Pats picks. They could've easily at least filled their needs at LB as the draft was obviously loaded with them. It's pretty evident their 2009 draft did absolutely nothing to help the Pats get back to the super bowl. From this point on, each draft becomes more critical or their window with Brady/Moss/Welker and other core players will quickly shut.

 

[patsfan-1982]

Exceeded

tom brady, 28 TD 13 INT 4,398 after suffering a major injury, and made the playoffs


Sebastian Vollmer, was great at both LT and RT


Julian Edelman, a 7th round pick who did noting but step up and make plays ever time the pats need it him.


Tully Banta-Cain, to get 10 sacks out of a guy that only had 12 in he's first 6 years in the NFL was amazing.


Leigh Bodden, i did not think he would do anything this year. and all he did was become the best corner since samuel left as a FA.


Gary Guyton, a undrafted FA who out played a top 10 pick for most of the year.


Disappointed


i know it's about players but #1 on my Disappointed list. is BB yes there was bad trades and FA pick up's and yet again no LB's drafted. but for me it was he's in season coaching lot's of bad calls . and sending players home in the snow. that set this team up for a one and done in the playoffs.


Adalius Thomas, i was not looking for him to do much this year and he did even less.


every RB other then maroney,


Patrick Chung, and Ron Brace, Chungs. stats 17 tackels 2 sacks 1 INT. Braces stats. was active for 5 games and had 6 tackels. the pats could of had. James Laurinaitis, 107 tackels 2 sacks 2 INT and Jairus Byrd, 30 tackels and 9 INT

 

[mmasterkillah]

How was Watson a disappointment? He dropped one ball in the regular season, and was one of MANY to struggle in the playoff appearance. He has developed into quite a great blocker and he can get open if/when needed. IMO he is a top 8-12 TE in the league. I also believe that Meriweather is very underappeciated. He is a great ballhawk who is relied upon to do too much. He is relied upon to contain the ball carrier from getting outside while also being forced to make far too many tackles. Our LB play has been so poor that Brandon has had to do far too much.

Edelman was a pleasant surprise, despite his shortcomings. Vollmer was a great surprise when I figured he would be much more of a project. Tully Banta Cain made some mistakes, but I couldn't have asked for any more than what he gave us this season.

Moss disappointed me. SOMETHING was wrong. I don't know whether it was truly an injury or whether his detractors in Oakland were truly onto something, but as a fan of his since he was at Marshall I never thought I would feel the way that I currently do, about him.

Adalius obviously disappointed all of us. I expected Jarvis Green to have a good year considering his role would increase with the departure of Seymour. I barely noticed him. Burgess seemed to improve late in the season, but was hardly a factor. Mayo has been miserable, though injuries have probably been part of the reason. I was also hoping Ty Warren would make himself evident more often, but he didn't necessarily play poorly.

I still have plenty of hope for Chung, Brace and Myron Pryor for our future defense.

 

[Synovia]

duane starks jr aka wilhite!!! Hilarious.

Yea - Wilhite was the big draft pick from a couple of years ago and he is in danger of not making the team next year. If he does, it will be because BB couldn't resign the vets at cheap $.

Yeah, hes going to go from starting this year, to not making the team. Sure.

 

[bucky]

There are way too many guys in the "met" and "did not meet" expectation category. Guys like James Sanders - who met my expectations of making exactly zero impact plays and getting benched.

So I'll just list the guys who I think had good years. And by "good", I mean I would gladly take the same type of performance from them every year. This is an exhaustive list, and it's pretty short:

Welker - Awesome. Has to be the team MVP.
Faulk - consistent as ever.
Seabass - he's already the team's best OT.
Wilfork - anchored an otherwise bad front 7 all year till he got hurt.
Bodden - not great, but very solid most of the year. 18 passes defensed.
Banta Cain - Team's only pass rushing threat. Showed some great moves.
Wright - I don't think he can be any better than what he did this year.
Kyle Arrington - I'm really reaching here, but he was a standout on special teams.

 

[The_Riddler]

Disappointed:

Mayo - Just brutal, lost inside of offensive guards shoulder pads, blown coverages and way too many tackles after 4-7 yard gains. Irrelevant tackle total. We need to see much, much more out of the 10th overall pick in the draft, he was a major disappointment.

Ty Warren - It really is amazing how guys play for that first big contract, he gets it, then drops it into neutral for a couple of years. C'mon Ty, let's get that hunger back that you used to have.

Tom Brady - The focus and pocket presence are just not there, the decision making not like it's been in the past. Now that he's married and a year back from the injury with everything finally set, let's see him get that old Tommy drive, heart and focus back. I miss it. Where did the fire go Tommy ?

Exceeded:

Edelman, SeaBass, Bodden (better than what I thought), LoMo (actually did more, ran harder than I ever expected at times, needs to be more consistent - I expected less even with the fumbles)